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General Guide by Elijia

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Introduction.

Greetings

The basis of this guide is some general testing that I've been doing with my favorite lane, top lane, and the s3 items. This guide assumes you already understand the basics of the top lane. It will not cover them. It will also not cover items in any other way than how they Pertain to transitions! This may be subject to change.
Without further ado, I bring you the top lane transitional guide!

Pros / Cons

Pros

Smooth item transitioning (gold efficiency)

Allows for effective Planning.

Versatile.

Cons

Can be a confusing concept to grasp

Cannot confirm that it works with all top laners; I haven't tested them all.

Item and thus, kill dependent.

Masteries

My Recommendations

Offense/Defense

Masteries

1/5

4/1

4/1

3/1

1/1

2/5

2/5

3/

1/

3/5

4/1

1/1

1/1

Garen is not an auto attacker. The CDR from Sorcery serves him much better. I also do not take the attack speed bonus on crits from Frenzy (tried coding this, it produced Frenzy) based on the same logic. Everything else is flat damage increase. J4 runs on the same logic, at least in terms of masteries.

Defense/Offense

Masteries

1/5

3/1

4/1

1/1

1/5

3/5

4/1

2/1

2/5

1/1

3/1

3/

1/

1/

These focus on flat reduction, as opposed to any serious gimmicks in the tree. Not much to talk about here.

Offense/Defense

Masteries

1/5

4/5

4/1

2/1

1/1

2/5

2/5

1/1

3/

1/

1/5

3/5

4/1

1/1

I prefer this build on Kayle. I sacrifice 1 point in Havoc for a full 4 points in Fury . I also take the Frenzy Mastery. Took health and health regen bonuses in defense. 1 bonus point. I like it in Summoner's Resolve because Heal if I want it.

Offense/Utility

Items and Transitioning

This is the section that I really wanted to talk about when I started this Guide. I intend to explain the effective transitions that I have discovered for s3 top lane.

A Transition is a term used loosely to describe getting high return out of your build preceding a change or addition of items.

1. Silly Phase

t2 boots, 3 Long Swords and 2 Ruby Crystals. This will set you back a grand total of 2800 to 3000 gold.
These items total into your The Brutalizer and Phage, plus 1 Ruby Crystal. I will talk about this further down.
I will admit, in terms of actual early game, this amalgamation of things is not optimal[/color]. You are taking advantage of the relative lack of aggression in these early phases to farm the lane. Nothing more. Kayle excels at this in particular. You have extra health, and extra damage. You have everything you need to win the lane. Only trade as you would normally, and be very aware of if you are losing those trades. These items can be accumulated bit by bit, as you can afford it, though the general rule of staying in lane as long as possible still applies. If you can save until you can get all of them at once, then do that. It's well worth it.

2. Laning Phase

That early farm fest of ours has paid off, and we now have our Phage, t2 boots and The Brutalizer! Health and damage are the 2 most important stats for the top lane in terms of scaling. We fight and trade a lot more frequently than any other lane, because for roughly 15 minutes, it's just you and him, and potentially his jungler (Which is why I said POTS AND WARDS!). Cooldown Reduction and armor penetration also work very well. It should be easy for you to get from the Silly phase into the Laning phase with no troubles at all because of how well you will scale, although not as optimally as a doran's itemer, you are being far more cost efficient. You are now in a great position to start some really aggressive trades and try and sneak in some kills. That isn't to say you shouldn't take the ones your enemy gives you before this if you can take them. But now is when you get to start being really aggressive yourself. You should be at or around level 6 at this point.
You will have your t2 boots, Phage, Ruby Crystal and The Brutalizer as well as any pots and wards. The fact of the matter is, this amazing jump forward in items that you just made, makes you an amazing threat, very, very suddenly. And all it cost you was 1127 gold.
After you've made about 1200 gold in farm and/or kills, head back.
This back on Garen and Jarvan IV should have you buying a Giant's Belt. On Kayle you will buy a Zeal or a Giant's Belt. I prefer Zeal, because I'm a sucker for dat damage.

It's at this point you make an assessment of the game as a whole before carrying on.

3. Mid Game Phase

The infamous pre-late game! That point in the game where you should be preparing for your late game, and finishing at least 1 end game item during it. If not, you are behind.

Consider the opposing team. Do they have a Taric with a Runic Bulwark and who are you laning against? Does your team have any solid initiates, and are you losing your lane? Who is their Jungler?

All of these questions have bearing on how you will build from here on out. And you have to be able to answer them quickly. This isn't a skill that can so much be taught, as it is learned through repetition and imitation, so I will simply lay out some simple answers for this transitional phase, per champion.

Because you bought the Giant's Belt, there are any number of items you can get, and there are more than 100 different opponents you could face theoretically in any game. But, you have some basic strengths. How you scale off of health, how you scale off of armor penetration and how you scale off of damage.

Warmog's Armor
This is your transition if you find yourself taking pressure from the enemy jungler, or if you are losing your lane. You will get this at some point as almost any top laner, because that passive is broken as all hell, but the fact that you still have your Ruby Crystal and your Giant's Belt means that it will only cost you 1175 gold. This is great for getting you back into the game if you're taking some heat from your lane opponent and/or their jungler! Because all bruisers build some form of health, you will see your health regen skyrocket and this will make it easier to stay in lane.

+ Frozen Mallet and Black Cleaver Combo
You've had an awesome Laning Phase, and the opposing jungler and top laner cannot touch you! Building these sets you up for pretty much any item you could want, and with good reason, it costs 2023 gold to build. This only really works if you build the combo, so save your components until you're sure of how you want to build, because your black cleaver does you little good if they can just run away.

Sunfire Cape
Often overlooked on many champions, but if you're getting out damaged by a primarily physical damage dealing opponent, this is a great way to get back into lane, and it gives you 40 - [mitigated magic damage] extra dps. From this, I recommend finishing The Black Cleaver once you have an additional 1188 gold, as you still have the components laying around.
Building Sunfire Cape costs you 1500 gold. It's primarily used to counter an opponent. You will probably be tanking if you get this, and you should not get this on Kayle.

Speaking of Kayle, the only reason to get the Zeal is to transition into the Trinity Force for 1560 gold, as a damage dealer. Your team doesn't need you to support, or as a meat shield they need your damage.

4. Peaking.

Unfortunately, you can only optimize so much, in a build. If you haven't won the game by a certain point, then eventually, you will no longer be able to take full advantage of slow early game scaling for quick and efficient transition into late game.

The point of transitioning isn't that you'll have more, or better items, but that you'll have the items you'll need at the right time. Your decisions will directly impact the ease of combat, while still giving you the options to change, should you need to.

Items, Post Peak

Well darn... What now?

Well, you've still got a game to win, and these are some items that will build upon the foundations you've set with your effective transitioning.

Garen and Kayle both scale very effectively off of crit. Building this later in the game will put the Oh in their no, but it does not scale well on Jarvan IV. It is situational, and it only made its way onto my list because of the role it plays on my favorite characters, and to prove that all items are situational, depending on your goals. So if you go into a game with a predetermined build, you are almost always predetermining failure at some point, unless you can effectively transition into a counter.

This one is self explanatory. Being the top laner means you cannot afford to be a useless pincushion. Pick this up if you're getting focused and get back into the fight after eating the opponents cooldowns.

The one item I believe every team should have. Get it if you're taking lots of magic damage, and your team doesn't have one.

Thank you!

Thank you!

I would like to take the time to thank you for reading my guide. Second time is the charm. If you have any extra info that you think I should add, please message me about it. Write a clear topic as to what you're messaging me about and be concise.

Big Thanks to jhoijhoi for his guide on... well, guides. It is found here.
Big thanks to the LoL and MOBAfire communities.
Big thanks to you, again! Thanks a lot for reading all this.

I hope you enjoyed this guide, and learning the concept of effective transitioning. Good luck summoners, and have fun!

Change Log

dd/mm/yyyy

24/01/2013: Wrote, edited and published the guide. Let me know if there is anything else you think I should add! <3

League of Legends is a team based, real time strategy game set in a mythical world of swords & magic where epic battles decide the fate of mystical nations. Game players take on the role of a Summoner who conjures and controls champions to fight for them at the Institute of War. During game play champions gain experience and items to enhance their skills and abilities. How players develop and play their champions can be the difference between a crushing defeat or a glorious victory!